Jade Marie Sweeney, a 32-year-old American, appeared in court for charges related to identity theft.
Credit card debt is a nightmare, but what’s even scarier is when you have debt you don’t even know about. Photo illustration
According to court documents, in October 2021, a woman living in a nursing home in Rochester, New York, received a credit card statement. Notably, she had never opened that account.
The woman believes Sweeney impersonated her to open the credit card. This is because Sweeney had asked her about banking card matters.
The statement shows that from September 18 to October 4, 2021, the credit card was used for two transactions, one for $2,465 and another for the purchase of a car. After the second transaction, an Audi Q7 worth $35,698 was registered under the woman’s name. However, she neither owned nor bought an Audi Q7 for anyone, and she certainly did not use the credit card.
An Audi Q7 in an identity theft case worth 883 million VND – Photo illustration: Audi
The suspicious points don’t stop there. Although the credit card user’s name was listed as the victim, the email address associated with the loan is not hers, but rather “jadesweeney”.
When questioned by the police, the Northwest Rochester dealership confirmed that a person named Sweeney had come to the dealership claiming to help their mother purchase a car. However, they couldn’t confirm if the victim had signed any credit card loan documents in front of the salesperson or not.
By the end of 2023, the court had issued a summons for Sweeney, but she failed to appear. Records show that Sweeney had been convicted of theft in 2019 and was under probation for 2 years. Furthermore, she committed another offense when she failed to make a successful credit card transaction and instead stole an item from the store.
Regarding the credit card purchase of the car, Sweeney is currently facing charges related to the use of someone else’s identity for financial transactions.
